Pedrosa heads Honda challenge in face of Aprilia onslaught

Pedrosa heads Honda challenge in face of Aprilia onslaught

The early stages of the 125 season have been dominated by Aprilia, with the Italian firm clocking up 70 points from the maximum 75 available thanks to victories by Vincent and Cecchinello and second place for the Frenchman in Welkom. In Jerez they took all three podium positions, thanks to Cecchinello, Vincent and Jenkner, for the first time since 1997 at Sentul, when Rossi, Sakata and ´Aspar´ took the top three positions.

The only other factory who are currently likely to equal that statistic is Honda, given that Derbi and Italjet run only two machines, whilst Gilera youngsters Fabrizio and Angeloni are in their rookie year and are not expected to join Manuel Poggiali in the fight for honours this season.

Aprilia now have four riders in the top six positions and the Honda rider widely expected to spoil the party is Daniel Pedrosa, who has taken pole position twice and boasts one podium finish so far this season. The Spanish youngster is currently in third place, four points behind Poggiali 28 from Vincent, and hopes to have fully recovered from a hand injury in time for this weekend at Le Mans. "The hand I hurt during practice at Jerez will be better this weekend, so we'll be aiming to run up front again," says Pedrosa. "Straight-line speed is very important at Le Mans and that's a concern for us at the moment, so we'll be working very hard to get our settings as good as possible." The last time Honda took all three podium positions in the category was at Río in 1999 with Ueda, Melandri and Alzamora.